So now my previous post told people where I am from and the backdrop of the place where I spent my childhood days. The place was amazing no doubts about that, but since every coin has two sides the other side of the coin was that I formally landed into a colony life. Well to be precise a Colony in this blog would refer to a Place where people working under the same company stay. This would be a residential area. The unique thing about a colony is that “Everybody knows everything about everybody”, When I say the previous statement it holds good for everyone. People are more interested in other person’s life and this is also discussed over dinner and lunch. There are gossips all around and every move made by the child is monitored by everyone. To have a reputation built up in such a trying condition is indeed tough.
Then there’s a competition with the friends around you. For me it was that if I secure 1st Rank in my class then my dad would buy me whatever I asked for after the results. The competition was very stiff, I still remember my mom scolding me for not getting the first rank. The rank was important not the marks. I remember one instance of my 5th grade, I was facing a stiff competition with my friend and during the final exam result day both of us secured the same marks and we shared the 1st rank mutually. All my gadgets which I own today where bought as a result of number of 1 mentioned over my report card.
For me coming 1st was not a onetime effort where in I could slog and secure the 1st rank, it was like a habit that I always needed to develop which lost its way after I reached 8th grade as soon as I realized that with the amount of time I needed to put into the studies to cover all the subjects started increasing. So I didn’t stretch instead I limited my scope to some subjects which I found interesting. After that the only aim was to maintain 90 plus marks in Mathematics and Science and chill.
Till I achieved my aim of keeping my Mathematics and Science up to my expectations I was happy and since the school was inside colony there was not major competition. I was like the frog inside the small well and feeling that world starts and ends here.
There was a system of inter school academic meet for the student s who were among the toppers fortunately I was counted among them and I was a part of this meet. This meet was an eye opener for me and made me realize that I was not as great as I always thought. I was dethroned from the position that I was good. The program was around 6 day residential program. Fortunately or rather unfortunately it was happening at our school during the year, I used unfortunately because we lost a chance to travel to a different state in the absence of our parents and our first outing with school friends.
ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME EXPERIENCE:
Since we were not travelling to any other place and the venue of the program was our school so we used to directly go to the Program from our homes. The first day was introduction of the Faculty members who were big guns from the TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research). All of them respected brilliance and intelligence, first time in my life I saw a set of teachers who would respect your creativity and who told me that no question is a stupid question. I was spell bound by the way they used to teach us, everything used to have an experiment coupled with it. All the Laws and Assumptions of PCM (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) which I used to think were viable only in Books were shown to me in practical. That time I thought this is it enough is enough; I will not be a person who gulps each line from the book and vomits the same on the Answer sheet. I met some real brilliant brains who were talking about parabola, hyperbola and probability from 9th grade onwards. This was an eye opener for me I came to know that what’s the level at which students who are present in metro cities thinking and I am a not match to their intelligence and knowledge. This Experience gave me a chance to improve on myself and explore answers for my questions beyond the NCERT text books.
The above feelings were from my inner self or the studious person inside me. But this experience gave me the chance to meet some great girls who defy the logic that beauty and brains both cannot co-exist in girls. I still remember a girl from Narora in UP. She was just amazingly beautiful and simple. Her beauty made every guys head turn around, man I wish I had the guts to go to her and introduce myself, since this was the same school where I had to continue I was not able to go to the girl and speak to her as all of the teachers knew me very well and even my parents also, so any wrong move would result in a new gossip across the colony.
As a part of the Enrichment program we were also taken to visit the my dad’s office’s geological museum in which I was least interested as it was always filled with a different varieties of rocks dug out from the depth of around 1 km. What made these visits interesting was the presence of the Girl from Narora (Let’s give her an arbitrary name Madhvi). She was so fair that one could see green veins from her hand. Her lips were so red that it always seemed to me that she had been wearing lipstick all through the day and night and even during the morning yoga sessions.
To make trip more exciting we were permitted by the Chairman to visit one of the vertical shaft mines. That was again an experience in itself as everybody would think a mines which goes deep till the 1 KM from the main sea level must be dark and scary but all our presumptions were laid to rest as we boarded the 2 storied elevators to get to the mines. We were give all the safety instructions with a torch light implanted on top of each helmet. We found the mines very soothing as the temperature was controlled and a pleasant breeze was blowing because of the huge ventilation fans one of which used to spoil my sleep as it was located some 500 meters from my house. The moment mine was extended it was white washed to give it a pleasant look. When the whole gang was exploring the mines under able guidance of the Instructor I looked thru a caveat in the wall I though let me go there and see what’s in there it was so thin that at a time only 1 person could enter. The moment I went in to see what’s in their Madhvi also followed me , then she asked “Where the hell you think you are going “ and she held my hand being scared of the consequences I moved back but we both got stuck as we tried to move out together and she was very close to me. Being from a typical Indian middle class family I didn’t realize what to do but if I would have seen a single English movie and known about kissing I bet I would have done it there. The feeling was just out of the world with one of the most beautiful girls so close to me at a depth of 1 KM from the main sea level. All I did is I asked her “I am sorry, I hope I didn’t hurt you” and she said “no I am fine, come hurry up otherwise we will get lost here”, I thought if I had a timer which could have stopped time for me I would have stopped it at that moment and be in the same state for some more time. But as our instructor shouted “hey you 2 do I need to send an invitation card for you”, thrashed all my dreams and we both ran and joined back with the gang. Next day onwards at least I was able to greet her with a smile and she used to acknowledge with another smile.
I prayed to god that “Please got let this camp continue for some more time because I don’t want to get back to the books I am good with the experiments and with Madhvi’s smile”. As the days passed the final day came and we had a party that day, she dressed in a Pink Salwar kurta looked like a princess. I had no words to say to her but she acknowledged my greetings smile.
The next day morning while she was boarding onto bus with a teacher from our school I was desperate to run to her and give her my postal address but going by the circumstances I was stranded. As the bus moved away I lost the view of her beautiful eyes and lips and as it took a turn a drop of tear rolled down my eyes. I still don’t know why it happened was that because of her beauty or her presence or her pink salwar kurta I felt my head rolling and when I looked up to the tree even that was rolling, then there was a sound “thump” and I didn’t realize what happened. When I opened my eyes I saw my PT (physical training) teacher carrying me to the PT room. He gave me a glass of water and asked my “Son, can you tell me what your name is?” I replied “Sir my name is Dibyendu”. He shouted “he is fine, get him some glucose”. Then my teacher asked me “when was the last time you had food”, it was then I realized that I have not ate anything from last 16 hours and have been running here and there due to which I fainted because of dizziness. In no time my mom came to school and brought me back home and as usual my dad told that this guy is never going to leave his mom as he does not know how to take care of himself. We drove back home in silence with me putting my head on the Lap of my mom which till date I find as the most stress free zone in this world. But, still I was staring out of the window wishing that we may overtake Madhvi’s bus. Then I came to know I had slept for 6 hours and the date in the calendar has changed and Madhvi is gone to her mom.
Then there’s a competition with the friends around you. For me it was that if I secure 1st Rank in my class then my dad would buy me whatever I asked for after the results. The competition was very stiff, I still remember my mom scolding me for not getting the first rank. The rank was important not the marks. I remember one instance of my 5th grade, I was facing a stiff competition with my friend and during the final exam result day both of us secured the same marks and we shared the 1st rank mutually. All my gadgets which I own today where bought as a result of number of 1 mentioned over my report card.
For me coming 1st was not a onetime effort where in I could slog and secure the 1st rank, it was like a habit that I always needed to develop which lost its way after I reached 8th grade as soon as I realized that with the amount of time I needed to put into the studies to cover all the subjects started increasing. So I didn’t stretch instead I limited my scope to some subjects which I found interesting. After that the only aim was to maintain 90 plus marks in Mathematics and Science and chill.
Till I achieved my aim of keeping my Mathematics and Science up to my expectations I was happy and since the school was inside colony there was not major competition. I was like the frog inside the small well and feeling that world starts and ends here.
There was a system of inter school academic meet for the student s who were among the toppers fortunately I was counted among them and I was a part of this meet. This meet was an eye opener for me and made me realize that I was not as great as I always thought. I was dethroned from the position that I was good. The program was around 6 day residential program. Fortunately or rather unfortunately it was happening at our school during the year, I used unfortunately because we lost a chance to travel to a different state in the absence of our parents and our first outing with school friends.
ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME EXPERIENCE:
Since we were not travelling to any other place and the venue of the program was our school so we used to directly go to the Program from our homes. The first day was introduction of the Faculty members who were big guns from the TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research). All of them respected brilliance and intelligence, first time in my life I saw a set of teachers who would respect your creativity and who told me that no question is a stupid question. I was spell bound by the way they used to teach us, everything used to have an experiment coupled with it. All the Laws and Assumptions of PCM (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) which I used to think were viable only in Books were shown to me in practical. That time I thought this is it enough is enough; I will not be a person who gulps each line from the book and vomits the same on the Answer sheet. I met some real brilliant brains who were talking about parabola, hyperbola and probability from 9th grade onwards. This was an eye opener for me I came to know that what’s the level at which students who are present in metro cities thinking and I am a not match to their intelligence and knowledge. This Experience gave me a chance to improve on myself and explore answers for my questions beyond the NCERT text books.
The above feelings were from my inner self or the studious person inside me. But this experience gave me the chance to meet some great girls who defy the logic that beauty and brains both cannot co-exist in girls. I still remember a girl from Narora in UP. She was just amazingly beautiful and simple. Her beauty made every guys head turn around, man I wish I had the guts to go to her and introduce myself, since this was the same school where I had to continue I was not able to go to the girl and speak to her as all of the teachers knew me very well and even my parents also, so any wrong move would result in a new gossip across the colony.
As a part of the Enrichment program we were also taken to visit the my dad’s office’s geological museum in which I was least interested as it was always filled with a different varieties of rocks dug out from the depth of around 1 km. What made these visits interesting was the presence of the Girl from Narora (Let’s give her an arbitrary name Madhvi). She was so fair that one could see green veins from her hand. Her lips were so red that it always seemed to me that she had been wearing lipstick all through the day and night and even during the morning yoga sessions.
To make trip more exciting we were permitted by the Chairman to visit one of the vertical shaft mines. That was again an experience in itself as everybody would think a mines which goes deep till the 1 KM from the main sea level must be dark and scary but all our presumptions were laid to rest as we boarded the 2 storied elevators to get to the mines. We were give all the safety instructions with a torch light implanted on top of each helmet. We found the mines very soothing as the temperature was controlled and a pleasant breeze was blowing because of the huge ventilation fans one of which used to spoil my sleep as it was located some 500 meters from my house. The moment mine was extended it was white washed to give it a pleasant look. When the whole gang was exploring the mines under able guidance of the Instructor I looked thru a caveat in the wall I though let me go there and see what’s in there it was so thin that at a time only 1 person could enter. The moment I went in to see what’s in their Madhvi also followed me , then she asked “Where the hell you think you are going “ and she held my hand being scared of the consequences I moved back but we both got stuck as we tried to move out together and she was very close to me. Being from a typical Indian middle class family I didn’t realize what to do but if I would have seen a single English movie and known about kissing I bet I would have done it there. The feeling was just out of the world with one of the most beautiful girls so close to me at a depth of 1 KM from the main sea level. All I did is I asked her “I am sorry, I hope I didn’t hurt you” and she said “no I am fine, come hurry up otherwise we will get lost here”, I thought if I had a timer which could have stopped time for me I would have stopped it at that moment and be in the same state for some more time. But as our instructor shouted “hey you 2 do I need to send an invitation card for you”, thrashed all my dreams and we both ran and joined back with the gang. Next day onwards at least I was able to greet her with a smile and she used to acknowledge with another smile.
I prayed to god that “Please got let this camp continue for some more time because I don’t want to get back to the books I am good with the experiments and with Madhvi’s smile”. As the days passed the final day came and we had a party that day, she dressed in a Pink Salwar kurta looked like a princess. I had no words to say to her but she acknowledged my greetings smile.
The next day morning while she was boarding onto bus with a teacher from our school I was desperate to run to her and give her my postal address but going by the circumstances I was stranded. As the bus moved away I lost the view of her beautiful eyes and lips and as it took a turn a drop of tear rolled down my eyes. I still don’t know why it happened was that because of her beauty or her presence or her pink salwar kurta I felt my head rolling and when I looked up to the tree even that was rolling, then there was a sound “thump” and I didn’t realize what happened. When I opened my eyes I saw my PT (physical training) teacher carrying me to the PT room. He gave me a glass of water and asked my “Son, can you tell me what your name is?” I replied “Sir my name is Dibyendu”. He shouted “he is fine, get him some glucose”. Then my teacher asked me “when was the last time you had food”, it was then I realized that I have not ate anything from last 16 hours and have been running here and there due to which I fainted because of dizziness. In no time my mom came to school and brought me back home and as usual my dad told that this guy is never going to leave his mom as he does not know how to take care of himself. We drove back home in silence with me putting my head on the Lap of my mom which till date I find as the most stress free zone in this world. But, still I was staring out of the window wishing that we may overtake Madhvi’s bus. Then I came to know I had slept for 6 hours and the date in the calendar has changed and Madhvi is gone to her mom.
Comments
Is this you Chetan(bhagat) blogging here using dibyendu's login id..
Thanks,
Sekhar Misra